Girdle



A ril 8, 5569 S. Z. SALISKY GIRDLE Filed na 29. 1966 APril 8, 969 s. z. SALIVSKY 3,437,092

smuma Filed Dec. 29, 1966 Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,437,092 GTRDLE Sallyann Z. Salisky, Garfield, N.J., assignor to International Playtex Corporation, Dover, DeL, a corporation of Delaware Filed Dec. 29, 1966, Ser. No. 605,635 Int. Cl. A4llc 1/02 U.S. Cl. 128542 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A girdle having parallel stretchable strip areas of alternately greater and lesser thicknesses which extend from each side of the vertical midline of the front panel upwardly and outwardly to the waistline of the girdle to form nested Vs. A distributing tape may extend outwardly and downwardly from the waistline over the upper portions of the said V strips.

While a girdle has a controlling function to perform which has many aspects, perhaps the single most important is the holding in and up of the abdomen. This portion of the body frequently has a tendency to both bulge and sag, which tendency the girdle overcomes or counteracts. The inward and upward pull to do this must of course be anchored against the slippage.

Thus a particularly important stress line is that which comes from the top back part of the girdle out to each side, extends forward over the shelf of the hip on each side and then extends forward and down to the underpart of the abdominal bulge.

In relatively static condition, the stretch characteristics of the garment accord with these stress requirements well enough if only the garment has fairly high resistance to stretch horizontally across the abdominal area.

For the more extreme dynamic requirements, such as encountered with modern social dancing, that one characteristic is not sufiicient to meet the stress requirements.

With rapid and extreme oscillations of the hips from one side to the other, the abdominal mass has an excursion tendency which is outward from momentum and downward from gravity. If the stretch characteristics of the girdle do not accord with the stress requirements of this dynamic action, the bulging abdominal mass will escape the grip of the girdle and slide within it. This sliding will be outward to one side, and the loss of grip will enable gravity to pull it downwardly. Hence the resultant of these components gives a displacement that can occur downwardly and outwardly to one side or the other.

It will be appreciated that if the flesh moves relative to the girdle and rubs against it this can become uncomfortable, and if on even an occasional excursion the flesh ends displaced nonsymmetrically relative to the girdle, the girdle will require adjustment, which is awkward in public or will give an uncomfortable feel.

The present girdle has a complex construction which serves specifically to counteract the above described tendency. It can be described very generally as having a body of two way stretch material, and a special abdominal panel. The abdominal panel has stretch characteristics which vary in different directions for its tWo halves about the vertical center line. Each half has vertical stretch and about the same degree of stretch on the sloping line as it comes down and in from the side toward the center line. Each half has reduced stretch horizontally and along the sloping line as it extends down and out across the center line.

The result of this is that stress is carried in a resilient manner along the previously-described main stress line that runs down and in to the central abdominal area. How- 3,437,092 Patented Apr. 8, 1969 ever, due to the fact that the left and right halves of the abdominal panel are not the same but are mirror images of each other, the resistance to stress undergoes a change when the center line is crossed. Automatically a stress line that slopes from the hip shelf down and in has good ability to stretch and move with the excursions of the abdomen, down to the center line. And automatically as the same line continues across the center line, in the same direction, it encounters an area of the abdominal panel which is more resistant to stretching.

A separate but interrelated characteristic of the abdominal panel is that it has selective frictional characteristics on its inner surface. The inner surface of the abdominal panel is formed with strip portions or areas of additional thicknesses which are arranged to run lengthwise of the previously described primary stress lines as far down as the vertical front center line. There, by being symmetrically reversed, the thickened strips that extend longitudinally of the primary stress line on the second side run transverse to the continuation of the stress line of the first side. A thickened vertical seam construction along the center line acts further like a tire tread to resist stretching past the center line.

The result of these two combined structural features is that when oscillatory excursions of the body occur, and the abdominal mass tends to swing out and down, the part of the girdle on the side the mass is moving away from is relatively free to stretch, to provide greater dimension needed to span this distance, and if it has to do any minor slipping to accommodate to differential stretch of the skin in that region it can do so. On the far side of the center line, where the abdominal mass is tending to bunch up, that portion of the abdominal panel of the girdle stands fast, relatively, with compact and relative unyielding adherence to that portion of the abdominal mass, and with relatively greater frictional resistance to any sliding on the skin there.

If we visualize in slow motion an extreme excursion of the body from one side and then the other, we can see the abdominal mass first lagging behind the hips as the hips start to move to the right then as the motion of the hips approaches its limit and is slowing down, the abdominal mass keeps its momentum and moves to the right faster than the hips, until it too approaches its limit of excursion and loses velocity.

In the process just described we can visualize the girdle on the near side (the left side, in the phase described above) beginning to stretch, with its stretch starting first well out to the left portion. As the abdominal mass passes the center of the body it stretches the left side of the girdle more and more.

We can see a traveling wave of stretched condition growing from the vicinity of the shelf of the left hip inwardly and downwardly. Back of the leading edge of the wave the girdle will be stretched more; ahead of it less. There will also be minor creeping accommodation between the girdle and the skin in the stretched area back of the leading edge of the wave.

If the leading edge of the wave in the latter part of the excursions to the right were to cross the center line, and the girdle were to creep back on the flesh past the center line, then when the body came to rest the girdle would end up distorted, unsymmetrically located, and uncomfortable and requiring adjustment on the body. It will be appreciated that upon the opposite excursions, right to left, the precise converse of the action described above -will take place. At that moment, if We have a girdle in which the traveling Wave of stretch and creep goes beyond the center line, the creep will move over to the other side. That will mean a tendency for rubbing in the course of the oscillations, and will mean that the girdle ends up off center to whichever side was last to receive a full excurs1on.

The preferred construction by which the differential stretch characteristics and differential frictional characteristics are imparted to the girdle of my invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevation of a girdle constructed in accordance with my invention;

FIGURE 2 is a showing of the inside surface of the front of my girdle when it is cut open and laid flat, face down, to show the inner surface.

FIGURES 3, 4, and are showings of the girdle turned inside-out to expose the inner surface.

FIGURE 3 shows the body of twoaway stretch material which will constitute the outer layer of the garment.

FIGURE 4 shows added thereto a kite-shaped abdominal panel of what is essentially one-way stretch material, having vertical stretch but little or no horizontal stretch.

FIGURE 5 shows added onto the foregoing a series of one-way stretch tapes, having longitudinal stretch but little or no transverse stretch. This figure shows also the perpendicular capping cross strips of similar tapes near the top which are seen in the finished product shown in FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 6 is a perspective of the girdle as seen on the body.

FIGURE 7 is a similar perspective of a high waisted girdle.

FIGURE 8 is a similar perspective of an alternative embodiment, and

FIGURE 9 is an exploded schematic sectional View on the line 9-9 of FIGURE 8, showing the double thickness of material in the region outboard of and above the wing of the abdominal panel.

While in the drawings open girdles are shown, it will be appreciated that my invention is equally applicable to panty girdles, and the term girdle as used herein is intended in its generic sense.

As seen in FIGURE 1, the main body 10 of the girdle is made of a two-way stretch material, preferably that which is known as powernet. The powernet has two vertical edges that meet and are seamed together in front. It may be integral in back, have a seat panel, or otherwise as desired. FIGURE 1 shows the pattern of sewing, which is the preferred means for assembling the other panel components to this main body of the garment. The other panel components are however secured to the inner surface of the powernet body, and are better seen in FIG- URE 2.

To the inner face of the front of the powernet body 16, which is shown alone in FIGURE 3, is applied the kiteshape reinforcement panel 14 shown in FIGURE 4. By kite-shape I mean of a generally diamond shape but with the upper sides sloping in at a less steep angle than the lower sides; the top is intersected by the waistline and is there truncated in the case of a garment that extends up only to the waistline. This panel can be made of any suitable one-way vertical stretch material. It preferably is made of a fabric without elastic but in which the threads that extend vertically have geometrical gathers in their rest condition, while the horizontal threads do not. Thus the material does not yield or stretch horizontally, but can readily be elongated vertically. This panel 14 starts at a point at its bottom that lies on the center vertical line 12 of the powernet body 10. Its two bottom edges 15, 16 extend up along straight lines that lie about 35 to 40 out to each side from the vertical. In the case of the waistline girdle, these edges extend up to about three-quarters of the height from the bottom point to the waistline top edge. There they turn 90 inwardly and extend up as upper edges 17, 18 to intersect the waistline top edge of the garment at points a short distance out to the sides from the center. The reinforcement panel has been described as it will be when the edges at the front have been seamed together. In practice my preferred way 4 of arriving at this is to first apply two halves 19, 20 of this kite-shaped reinforcement panel, separated at a line down the center, to the two front side portions of the body 10. As indicated in FIGURE 4, these pieces are sewed along their edges to the powernet body.

Now, as seen in FIGURE 5, we apply a series of parallel tapes (21 and 22 respectively) to each side half of the abdominal panel area to form nested Vs. Each tape or strip area of greater thickness is at least as Wide as its adjacent strip area of lesser thickness. For instance each tape is of the general order of an inch wide and they are spaced apart something of the order of half their width, for example, one half inch. Each tape is freely stretchable along its length and has little or no stretch across its width. These tapes have woven edges, so the edges can be, and are, left natural without rolling under. The tapes are sewn along both edges of each tape by zigzag stitching so as to remain stretchable. These tapes run parallel to the lower edges of the kite-shaped reinforcement panel, and the outermost tape has its outer edge approximately coinciding with that edge of the panel member. They continue straight on to the top edge of the garment. As is evident from FIGS. 1 and 5 at least one of the tapes in each side portion of the abdominal panel extends from the back waistline of the girdle out to the side over the prominence of the hip bone and then down and forward to the vertical centerline at the underpart of the abdominal bulge of the wearer.

After the two halves of the reinforcement panel and the parallel tapes (and a pair of cross-tapes to be described below) have been sewed together the two front halves of the girdle are sewed together with a folded back vertical seam 23. The projecting, or folded-back, ends of the tapes partially fill in the valleys between the tapes along this centerline, so a central vertically extending slight ridge, or tread, is formed.

The configuration of the tapes at their upper ends may vary from the form shown in FIGURES 1 through 6.

One alternative embodiment is that seen in FIGURE 7, which shows a high waisted girdle. Here the topmost tapes extend all the way to the top edge of the garment, while those below terminate at their intersections with a short vertical reinforcement 24 near the side.

Another embodiment is shown in FIGURE 8 in which the tapes that form Vs terminate at the shoulder edges of the reinforcement panel and there overlap with a second thickness of two-way stretch material 25 which in this vicinity reinforces the two-way stretch material that forms the main body of the girdle. As is brought out in FIGURE 9, the main body of the girdle is of single thickness of powernet below the abdominal panel in front, but of double thickness of powernet at the sides of and above the abdominal panel.

It will be seen that in all these embodiments the generally triangular area 30 between the shoulder edges of the reinforcement panel, the top edge of the girdle, and a line extending down from the top edge at the side, is reinforced by having double thickness at least along those areas that are upward and outward extensions of the several tapes that form nested Vs in the front panel. By this means, the forces are evenly and well distributed along the primary stress line that runs around from the back, forward over the shelves of the hips, and forward and down to the lower abdominal area.

There is also provided a pair of distributing tapes 27, 28 (briefly mentioned above), which coincide with the shoulder edges of the reinforcement panel member previously described. These distributing tapes are preferably like the tapes 21, 22 that form the Vs. They extend from the waistline of the garment downwardly and outwardly, coinciding with the upper edges of the reinforcement panel component and end at the lowermost of the V tapes. FIG. 8 shows the distributing tapes extending over the outer ends of the V tapes. They are sewed to the powernet component, the reinforcement panel component,

and the V tapes. The slight additional stiffening, and the absence of stretch in a direction crosswise of these distributing bands, help keep the material in the locus of the main stress line from pulling into furrows and gathering up crosswise as longitudinal pull is exerted. These distributing bands extend from two points each a short distance outward from the center at the waistline, extending out at approximately 45 down from horizontal, and terminate (when on the body) inboard of the hip bone protrusions that are called the prominences of the ilium. As seen from the figures each distributing tape ends at a point which is at or above the mid-height of the vertical centerline of the girdle. Thus they perform their function of smoothing the whole force path that is put under stress, while avoiding putting localized stress, roughness, or varying thickness directly on the prominences of the ilium, where there is rather little thickness of flesh and discomfort could otherwise ensue.

The composite abdominal panel has certain characteristics of resistance to stretch and resistance to slipping, within any given portion of it. Let us consider the portion between the vertical centerline and the edges of the kite shape on one side. Samples constructed in accordance with the invention and representative of that portion of the panel have been constructed and tested. In the range of applied forces likely to be incurred in use on the body the degree of elongation for a particular value of applied force is between /2 and two times as great parallel to the tapes as it is perpendicular to the tapes. It will be noted that the primary line of force discussed previously runs down parallel to the tapes on the near side and as it continues straight across the centerline in the same direction it becomes perpendicular to the tapes there.

With the construction of the present invention, the coefficient of friction also varies as between parallel to the tapes and perpendicular to the tapes, being somewhat greater perpendicular to the tapes. The load required to induce slippage under test conditions is about higher perpendicular to the tapes than it is parallel to the tapes. This difference in itself is rather small, but is particularly significant when co-acting with the difference in stretch to give a significant combined resultant effect. The difference in coefiicient of friction is achieved by the fact that the tape strip-shape areas are of the order of 0.050" thick while the strip-shape valleys between them are of the order of 0.020" thick. Moreover, the vertical center seam 23 constitutes a ridge-like tread, of the order of 0.070" to 0.090" thick, interposed between the near side that is designed to stretch and slip and the far side that is designed to resist stretching and slipping.

I claim:

1. A girdle having a stretchable abdominal panel symmetrical about a vertical centerline and comprising:

two generally symmetrical side portions, each side portion having stretchable strip areas of alternately greater and lesser thickness which are parallel to each other and in which each strip area of greater thickness is at least as wide as its adjacent strip area of lesser thickness, said strip areas extending from the waistline of the girdle downwardly and inwardly as far down as the vertical centerline to form nested Vs, at least one of said thickened strip areas extending from the back waistline of the girdle, out to the side, over the prominence of the hip bone and then down and forward to the vertical centerline at the underpart of the abdominal bulge of the wearer,

each thickened strip area having greater stretchability longitudinally than transversely,

each side portion having more stretch in a direction sloping up and out and less sitretch in a direction sloping down and out,

each side portion having less resistance to slipping on its inner surface in a direction sloping up and out and greater resistance to slipping on its inner surface in a direction sloping down and out.

2. Girdle of claim 1 in which the girdle comprises a body portion of two-way stretch material which continuously overlies and constitutes the top layer of the abdominal panel and the thickened strip areas comprise tapes secured to the inner surface of the abdominal panel and of the body portion.

3. Girdle of claim 1 in which each abdominal panel portion comprises a layer of two-way stretch material, a layer of one-way stretch material with its stretch direction vertical, and the thickened strip areas comprise tapes secured to the inner surface of each side portion.

4. A girdle having a stretchable abdominal panel symmetrical about a vertical centerline and comprising:

two generally symmetrical side portions, each side portion having stretchable strip areas of alternately greater and lesser thickness which are parallel to each other and in which each area of greater thickness is at least as wide as its adjacent area of lesser thickness, said strip areas extending from the vicinity of the waistline of the girdle downwardly and inwardly as far down as the vertical centerline to form nested Vs, at least one of said thickened strip areas extending from the back waistline of the girdle, ont to the side, over the prominence of the hip bone and then down and forward to the vertical centerline of the girdle at the underpart of the abdominal bulge of the wearer, each thickened strip area having greater stretchability longitudinally than transversely, each side portion having a stretchable distributing tape which starts from the vicinity of the waistline of the girdle,

extends downwardly and outwardly over the aforesaid parallel strip areas, and

ends at the lowermost of the parallel strip areas at a point which is at or above the midheight of the vertical centerline of the girdle.

5. Girdle of claim 4 in which the thickened strip areas are tapes.

6. A girdle having a stretchable abdominal panel symmetrical about a vertical centerline and comprising:

two generally symmetrical side portions, each side portion having stretchable strip areas of alternately greater and lesser thickness which are parallel to each other and in which each strip area of greater thickness is at least as wide as its adjacent strip area of lesser thickness,

said strip areas arising from the vertical centerline and extending upwardly and outwardly to form nested Vs,

8 each thickeneld strip area having greater are so located that on the body they are near but entirely stretchability longitudinally than transabove or inboard of the prominencesof the ilium. versely, each side portion having a stretchable distributing tape References Cited f th tr f a d1 5 UNITED STATES PATENTS s a s rorn e wa1s me 0 1e g1r e, extends downwardly and outwardly over the outer 3121428 2/1964 Laguzzl 128*548 ends of the aforesaid parallel strip areas, and 2458279 1/1949 128 540 ends at the lowermost of the parallel strip areas 2732556 1/1956 Erteszek 128-528 at a point which is at or above the midheight 3044471 7/1962 Morehouse 128548 of the vertical cemeflhm 10 3,142,302 7/ 1964 Schonberg 128542 7. Girdle of claim 4 in which at least the areas corresponding to extensions of the parallel tapes, in the tri- ADELE EAGER Primary Examiner angular spaces above the distributing tapes are of double US. Cl. X.R. thickness.

8. Girdle of claim 4 in which the outermost of the 128 547 parallel tapes and the outer ends of the distributing tapes 

